On Campus/Lough: Looking at the typically frisky A-Sun baseball tournament

The A-Sun baseball tournament, the final one for Mercer and East Tennessee State, is underway in sunny Florida at Florida Gulf Coast's Swanson Stadium.

Neither the Bears nor Bucs - especially the Bucs - will miss that drive - imagine being on I-16 for, well, almost any amount of time - to Fort Myers.

Expect their final one to be interesting, as the A-Sun tournaments usually are.

ETSU was the fourth seed in winning last year's tournament, including a 7-4 10-inning win over Mercer. That came after missing the whole thing in 2012.

I can't shake this feeling that North Florida is going to give FGCU and ace Mike Murray a boatload of trouble in this afternoon's game.

When they all gathered together at Swanson on April 18, the Ospreys tagged Murray for 10 hits in eight innings, and he had only three strikeouts to a walk.

According to the NCAA stats site, that's a season-high against Murray, who then gave up nine hits in consecutive outings, against Mercer and Northern Kentucky.

The Ospreys left a lot of birds on base in the series at FGCU, so they should be as confident an eighth seed as an eighth seed could be.

And for only two complete games, he throws a lot of pitches, cracking 100 in eight games.

An upset would make UNF the most popular team among the field, because Murray would be done and the Eagles' starting pitching after that is so-so. Note that Murray has exactly one-third of his team's wins.

Then there's the feeling that Mercer may lack that edge needed to win because all indications are that the Bears are in the NCAA tournament.

They've dropped to a three seed, most likely, with the late slump, unless then at least reach the championship round and lose only to a Kennesaw State - the team to watch - or host FGCU.

Win the tournament, and they're a two-seed. But it'll be tough.

As we already see.

As of 12:20 on tournament-opening day, ETSU is up 7-6 over Kennesaw State in the eighth. Yeah, hold on.

Georgia College keeps on keepin' on

The Bobcats lost in an elimination game last Saturday at the Division II NCAA Southeast Regional, but Georgia College just continues to be a top-flight D2 program.

Their worst record under Tom Carty? 29-21 in 2012.

They've won at least 35 games in five of Carty's seven seasons, and the Peach Belt is a bloody-competitive conference.

One would think that's enough for him to get some calls from Division I.

More Bears baseball

There weren't many surprises on the A-Sun all-conference team released Tuesday.

I thought Mercer shortstop Matt Meeder or catcher Charlie Madden had a chance for the all-freshman team.

Their averages (.259 and 269) aren't far from Kyle Lewis' .284, and they've played more on the field at busier positions.

OK, Nick Backlund making it for a third straight time, albeit second team, was a surprise. His production overall is down a chunk, even with no ability to pitch around him.

Dimitri Kourtis didn't pitch nearly as much, but he was busy - and good - enough in conference play to sneak in.

Eric Nyquist, Sasha LaGarde and Michael Massi were givens, and Chesny Young had a second-team year.

Here's a collection of stat rankings of the tournament field that clearly take up too much space for the paper - and with information so hard to track down from the sources, so much time.

It tells you that Mercer has power, average speed, superb pitching and defense, and has no real weaknesses, per se.

Kennesaw State right now might be the second-best team, although the Owls need to be tight on defense to win.

It also shows how many teams have enough strengths to make noise for different reasons.

The guess here is that Stetson and Jacksonville are the first 0-2 teams to head home, Stetson because Mercer should be on point in the opener and Jacksonville because I'm not sure the speed can overcome some pitching issues.

Lucky for them, it's not a bad drive.

RPIs

As of 5 p.m. Tuesday.

(Avg. rounded off; using Warren Nolan, Boyd's World, NCAA)

30. Mercer

66. Kennesaw State

73. Florida Gulf Coast

163. Jacksonville

165. Lipscomb

168. North Florida

190. East Tennessee State

193. Stetson

Stats

(Tourney seed to left; in order of ranking)

Batting

8. North Florida, .304

3. Kennesaw State, .297

1. FGCU, .297

2. Mercer, .290

5. Jacksonville, .277

7. Stetson, .274

6. ETSU, .274

4. Lipscomb, .272

Home Runs

2. Mercer, 42

6. ETSU, 37

8. North Florida, 34

1. FGCU, 32

4. Lipscomb, 25

3. Kennesaw State, 24

7. Stetson, 17

5. Jacksonville, 13

Steals

5. Jacksonville, 67-83

1. FGCU, 62-81

4. Lipscomb, 61-94

3. Kennesaw State, 54-72

6. ETSU, 49-73

2. Mercer, 32-57

8. North Florida, 32-43

7. Stetson, 32-45

On-base percentage

2. Mercer, .380

4. Lipscomb, .369.

1. FGCU, .367

3. Kennesaw State, .362

8. North Florida, .360

5. Jacksonville, .357

7. Stetson, .350

6. ETSU, .340

Grounded into DPs

7. Stetson, 44

2. Mercer 39

8. North Florida, 39

1. FGCU, 37

3. Kennesaw State, 36

4. Lipscomb, 35

6. ETSU, 32

5. Jacksonville, 29

ERA

2. Mercer, 3.17

1. FGCU, 3.27

3. Kennesaw State, 3.55

4. Lipscomb, 3.98

8. North Florida, 4.70

7. Stetson, 5.11

6. ETSU, 5.18

5. Jacksonville, 5.35

Opponents' batting avg.

4. Lipscomb, .244

1. FGCU, .263

2. Mercer, .266

3. Kennesaw State, 2.66

5. Jacksonville, .285

7. Stetson, .291

8. North Florida, .299

6. ETSU, .309

Saves

2. Mercer, 16

1. FGCU, 14

3. Kennesaw State, 14

4. Lipscomb, 13

7. Stetson, 13

6. ETSU, 11

5. Jacksonville, 10

8. North Florida, 5

Fielding

2. Mercer, .974

6. ETSU, .971

8. North Florida, .969

5. Jacksonville, .968

4. Lipscomb, .967

1. FGCU, .966

3. Kennesaw State, .959

7. Stetson, .959

Double plays turned

4. Lipscomb, 60

2. Mercer, 45

1. FGCU, 45

5. Jacksonville, 41

7. Stetson, 41

8. North Florida, 34

3. Kennesaw State, 32

6. ETSU, 24

- Michael A. Lough

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